1. Field of the Invention
The preferred embodiments of the present invention relate to, inter alia, a vehicle body vibration damping apparatus that dampens the vibration of a vehicle body frame of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following description sets forth the inventors' knowledge of related art and problems therein and should not be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art.
In some conventional cases, in a vehicle body frame of an automobile, a reinforcing member as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,411,311 (hereinafter referred to as “Patent Document 1”) is attached, or retrofitted, and used in order to partially improve the rigidity in accordance with a running condition and/or a preference of a driver. The reinforcing member disclosed in Patent Document 1 is formed into an elongated shape and positioned in an engine compartment.
This reinforcing member is attached to upper end portions, i.e., a pair of right and left suspension towers, of a vehicle body frame so as to connect the suspension towers to each other. This reinforcing member reinforces the vehicle body with respect to forces applied to the vehicle body in the vehicle width direction from an upper end portion of a shock absorber for a front wheel suspension device.
The above-described reinforcing member is elastically deformed by compression when a load is applied in the vehicle width direction, and due to the immediate release of the load, the reinforcing member generates vibration, which may deteriorate the riding comfort. In order to prevent the generation of the vibration, a hydraulic damper or a vibration damping portion such as rubber may be provided on a halfway portion in the longitudinal direction as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2002-211437 (hereinafter referred to as “Patent Document 2”).
The device disclosed in Patent Document 2 constitutes a vehicle body vibration damper capable of damping the vibration of a vehicle body rather than reinforcing the vehicle body.
In the above-described vehicle body vibration damper disclosed in Patent Document 2, it is preferable to attach the damper to a vehicle body frame during the assembling procedures of the vehicle body. However, this increases the number of steps of assembling the vehicle body by the steps of attaching the vehicle body vibration damper to the vehicle body frame, which results in increased production cost.
The description herein of advantages and disadvantages of various features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed in other publications is in no way intended to limit the present invention. For example, certain features of the preferred embodiments of the invention may be capable of overcoming certain disadvantages and/or providing certain advantages, such as, e.g., disadvantages and/or advantages discussed herein, while retaining some or all of the features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed therein.